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     Tthanks Pilla Bewarse Username: Tthanks Post Number: 511 Registered: 01-2013 Posted From: 171.159.192.10 Rating: N/A |
Kumble about TEndulkar In the last couple of years, Australia, India, England and South Africa have all been No. 1 in Tests. Cricket, generally, is in a good place right now, with greater competition among more teams, faster rates of scoring and a wonderful range of bowling among the teams. Pakistan can lose to Zimbabwe one day and then beat South Africa soon after. India can lose a series 0-4 in Australia and turn it around by the same margin when the series is played at home. When I made my debut for Karnataka, the idea of India becoming the No. 1 side was far-fetched. In that same week, another man was making his debut, for India in another country. A 16-year-old named Sachin Tendulkar had arrived, and now nearly a quarter century later, he gives his name to an era in cricket. Turning points are not so easily recognised when they occur, but seen in perspective, on the eve of the great man's 200th Test match, we - both those who played with him and those who watched him - know we lived through this era. Sachin and I played 122 Test matches together; I never threatened his place in the team as a batsman. But I can tell you he sometimes threatened mine as a bowler - he was such a natural as a legspinner. That he has played for so long and with such great authority is testimony both to his passion for the game and his incredible capacity for hard work. Fans see only the final product - the exquisite straight drive or the smooth on-drive - but tend to forget the hours of sweat that went into producing such strokes. Perception leads many astray when they confuse the product with the process: the former is effortless only because of the effort that goes into the latter. Sachin is three generations of players in himself. He began when Kapil Dev was still the spearhead of our attack, was a contemporary of the Dravids, Laxmans, Gangulys, Zaheers, Harbhajans, Dhonis and Sehwags and has placed Indian cricket in the strong and capable arms of Virat Kohli and Cheteswar Pujara. The role of the game in India, as we bear witness to a handing over of the baton, cannot be exaggerated. Neither can the role Sachin has played in it being all things to all men. The game unites people like nothing else does, bringing together the politician and his driver, the society lady and her hairdresser in a manner that is unique and somehow inevitable. When you consider the median age of the country is roughly the number of years Sachin has been playing first-class cricket, you can understand what I mean. For a great majority of our countrymen, Sachin Tendulkar has been a fixture all their lives. Of no other sportsman in any other place or time can it be said that he symbolises both the essence and the aspirations of a whole people. Yet even in the case of this genius, our perceptions have shifted. When India dropped out of the World Cup in 2007, it was assumed that we had blown the last chance to crown the greatest one-day batsman with a deserving crown. Yet, four years later, there he was, being carried on the shoulders of the next generation - literally - as the elusive World Cup was finally won in his sixth attempt. When he turned 37 the previous year, many felt he had overstayed his welcome - a perception that was hammered home by the media. Yet it was then that he scored the first double-century in one-day internationals. Few players have done as much as Sachin to alter the perception of the game in our country either individually or as part of the best teams to take the field for India. But it wasn't just Sachin the batsman or Sachin the sharp thinker of the game alone who made the difference. I remember him saying on a tour of the West Indies that "cricketers' stories come pouring out when it rains." With the game being held up or sometimes not even starting, the youngsters always sat around with the seniors listening to their stories, to their early hopes and disappointments and to their future aspirations. This is some of the best education that juniors can have. And those who come in with preconceived notions about superstars and their superhuman ways soon come to realise that even the greatest players are human beings, with all the insecurities and uncertainties that we as a race are subject to. Not all changes are planned, not all alterations in perception are logical or inevitable. Yet, despite everything, I firmly believe that cricket will endure. It has for 136 years. The optimism is based on the thousands of boys I see playing in various grounds around the country. It stems from the look in their eyes and the passion in their voices as they talk of becoming the next Tendulkar or Dhoni. |